Which do you prefer – Yahoo’s official logo or the winning design from our contest?

If you haven’t been basking in the sun on the beach all week, you’ve probably caught all the hullabaloo surrounding Yahoo’s introduction Wednesday of its first new logo in nearly 20 years.

After the company launched its “30 days of change” campaign last month, we challenged our community of more than 240,000 graphic designers around the world to come up with logos they think best represent the brand. We encouraged designers to think not only of where Yahoo is now, but of the ambitious direction in which it’s heading – and to think outside the box. Our contest drew more than 5,000 entries, and on August 26th we awarded a winner and 29 finalists. You can check them all out here on our Designer Blog.

Now, a major company’s logo redesign being met with fierce criticism is nothing new. Remember The Gap? The company introduced a new logo back in the fall of 2010 – and less than one week later abandoned it following a public outcry. (We ran a contest for fun back then, too.) Consumers aren’t known to love branding overhauls – we’re a very tough crowd to please. You can see an engaging roundup here of nine major brands’ logo changes over the years; upon introduction some were immediately despised and some were embraced. The vast majority of brands facing initial resistance simply forge ahead and soon enough their former logos are a distant memory.

So where will Yahoo go from here? Only time will tell. Mayer noted in her Tumblr post that the company is likely to iterate on the logo, so we won’t be surprised to see more logo design change afoot.

Of course, we want to know what you think. Does Yahoo’s new logo do the trick? Do you prefer ours? Tell us in the comments!